Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

"Are you alright?" Gu Dayong looked Zhou Rui up and down.

Zhou Rui threw the person he was holding to the ground, shook himself, and shook off the dust covering his body. This dust was from when he passed through the thick smoke and dust after the grenade explosion.

"I'm fine!"

"Don't be reckless next time. Your uncle is getting old, and my heart can't take it."

Gu Dayong tried to persuade him earnestly, feeling that Zhou Rui was even more formidable than he had been at his younger age.

"Uncle, I know what I'm doing," Zhou Rui replied calmly to Gu Dayong, just like when the two of them were chatting normally.

He knows what he can and cannot do; his senses will alert him to impending danger, even if only by a second.

At this moment, the little dwarf on the ground slowly opened his eyes. There was no hysteria, no anger or shame, only endless silence.

"Tanaka?"

Gu Dayong took two steps forward, his steps displaying the bearing of a soldier.

But the dwarf didn't look at him; instead, he looked at Zhou Rui beside him. Clearly, he was only interested in the person who had defeated him.

"Did you arrest me? What's your name?"

His voice was dark and his accent was strange, but Gu Dayong and Zhou Rui could still understand him.

"You..." Gu Dayong burst into anger.

Zhou Rui stepped forward and stopped Gu Dayong, who was about to fly into a rage, fearing that Gu Dayong would beat the prisoner he had finally managed to capture alive to death.

"You little devil, I think you don't understand the current situation. You're my prisoner now, so only I can interrogate you. What right do you have to question me?"

The little guy lay on the ground, looking up at Zhou Rui. The flashlight beam was so weak that it was hard to see Zhou Rui's face clearly.

Moreover, being looked down at like this, with his aura suppressed, made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

The short man bent his elbows backward, slowly propped himself up, and shuffled backward until he leaned against the wall, which made him much more comfortable.

"There's a lamp in that box over there; you can take it out and use it."

The short man evaded the question, trying to lead Zhou Rui by words.

Zhou Rui saw through his intentions, but ignored them. Now that they were in his hands, they couldn't pull any tricks.

Zhou Rui walked over, and Gu Dayong's flashlight followed. Zhou Rui took a table lamp out of the box, with a rusty lampshade on top.

Zhou Rui found the socket and turned on the table lamp. The bulb wasn't very wattage, but it was enough to illuminate the space.

"You're living quite well, aren't you? You even have electric lights? Our village doesn't even have electricity yet." Zhou Rui's tone was somewhat mocking, a different approach from when he interrogated the two vagrants earlier.

This guy's a soldier; those petty tricks aren't exactly respectable. But Zhou Rui didn't intend to get any information from him anyway; he just wanted to keep quiet so they could find someone.

"The base has diesel fuel and generators; it'll have electricity for a hundred years, cough cough..."

The short man felt a tightness in his chest; Zhou Rui had just slammed him into the chest, breaking his ribs.

Zhou Rui ignored the dwarf's boasting and instead carried the two chairs over, casually placing them two meters in front of the dwarf.

"Uncle Dayong, please sit down."

Gu Dayong was somewhat surprised to see this, but he still put down his backpack and sat down casually.

The chair legs are a bit short, making it uncomfortable to sit in.

Zhou Rui sat down: "Tanaka? And that's Matsuki?"

Although Zhou Rui was asking a question, his tone already confirmed the dwarf's identity.

"Shorty," no, Tanaka didn't answer, but turned to the direction Zhou Rui had just pointed, where there was a strange object, not human-shaped.

"You, you all killed him."

Zhou Rui tilted his head back and twisted his neck.

"Tanaka, stop changing the subject. I didn't intend to kill him. He injured himself and fell down the stairs. He died because he was unlucky."

He had expected Tanaka to be angry or sad, but he saw nothing; he simply calmly withdrew his gaze.

Zhou Rui's face remained calm, but he was extremely wary inside. It seemed he wouldn't be able to get anything out of this person.

"Were you hired by Black Wolf?"

Zhou Rui understood his unspoken meaning, thinking that he and Gu Dayong were hired by Black Wolf, who was greedy for money, to kill them and seize all the property in the base.

Zhou Rui shook his head: "You shot someone in the mountains a few days ago. That person was our employer."

Zhou Rui wasn't foolish enough to reveal everything; he only gave a vague answer.

"Alright, I've told you everything you wanted to know. Now it's my turn to ask you."

"Your name is Tanaka? How long have you been here? What do you want?"

Zhou Rui thought he wouldn't get any information out of him and just wanted to try, but he didn't expect that Tanaka, perhaps because he hadn't talked to anyone for a long time, would actually reveal everything.

"Imperial Second Lieutenant, Tanaka Jiro." Tanaka suddenly announced his rank, exuding an aura of authority.

"Pfft, an empire, my foot. The Japanese have declined since their defeat and are now just a dog of the United States."

Gu Dayong couldn't stand the arrogance of the Japanese, so he poured a bucket of cold water on them.

"No, the spirit of our Imperial Army will live on forever. They, they will definitely fight back."

Tanaka's voice grew softer and softer, as if he himself didn't believe what he was saying.

"Alright, Tanaka, you're not young anymore, stop having these kinds of fantasies."

Zhou Rui speaks directly and can be quite blunt.

Tanaka remained silent for a while, slowly composing himself.

"Speak, what do you want to ask?"

Tanaka was not in good condition; he seemed somewhat dazed and his words were repetitive.

"What is this base for? Why are you staying here?"

"This base is a supply base for our army. We left a lot of supplies here in preparation for our future counterattack."

"Four or five years later, we were defeated, and all the army personnel had to be withdrawn back to the country."

"My superior ordered a large amount of supplies to be transported to this base, saying that we would fight back one day."

"I was ordered to lead a small squad to stay behind. I've waited for ten years, twenty years, and now it's been almost thirty years."

"All my men are dead. Little Pine Tree was the only one left to keep me company, but now he's gone to see Amaterasu too..."

Tanaka's voice grew softer and softer, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

"Holy crap, what's going on? Did he take poison?"

Zhou Rui jumped up from his chair, grabbed a flashlight, and went over. He saw that Tanaka's pupils were dilated, and more and more blood was gushing from his mouth; he was beyond saving.

Gu Dayong stepped forward, took a look, and then groped Tian Zhong.

"It wasn't poisoning; it was just that your ribs were broken, piercing his internal organs, and he bled to death."

"Huh?" Zhou Rui glanced back at Gu Dayong, then looked directly at Tanaka and muttered something under his breath.

"I didn't intend to kill you, you're just unlucky."

"Uncle Dayong, aren't the merits of the dead Japanese soldiers greater than those of the living ones?"

Gu Dayong laughed loudly: "You little rascal, all you think about is credit. Do you want to join the army?"

"No, no, I'm not going. My An'an and Xiao Niangao are still too young, I can't leave."

Zhou Rui shook his head like an electric fan.

"Let's go. This military base is so big; if we report it, won't we get a huge reward?"